


17 ain't so sweet

by drislesbabe



Category: Rizzoli & Isles
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff, Slow Burn, Teen Romance, Tutoring
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:14:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29807547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drislesbabe/pseuds/drislesbabe
Summary: Jane Rizzoli is a modest girl from South Boston and attends high school there. Maura Isles is a boarding school student who should never be short for anything in life. What happens when the two of them cross paths and are forced to interact with each other? Will they hate each other completely or will a friendship arise, let alone something beyond that? How will they deal with the added circumstances?
Relationships: Maura Isles/Daniel Brophy, Maura Isles/Jane Rizzoli
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	1. Don't hate the player

The hitting of the hard rubber against the worn linoleum echoed throughout the hall before the dark, curly haired head passed the ball in a clean pass to her teammate. With his good build, it didn't take much effort for the young man to get down on his knees and then jump up. The rods groaned under his weight as he clung to the basket and fired the ball through it. There was a roar through the hall as well as the unmistakable sounds of the whistle.

"All right. That's all for today. Go get changed”, announced the tall, slim man and then turned to the two friends, who boxed each other and went to the gender-segregated changing rooms.

"Jane, please wait a moment," he said. Jane's smile faded and she exchanged a look with her best friend. He gave her imperceptibly to understand that he would wait if she wanted him to. She waved it off and so he left her alone with the trainer.

"What's up, Coach?" The student tried to make it sound casual, but her composure disappeared and she symbolically crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Jane, I really appreciate your performance in the game and I'm really glad to have you back in the team. But sport means playing in a team, you shouldn't have forgotten that over the weeks."

She shifted her weight from one leg to the other, about to contradict him. "Didn't you see that-"

He interrupted her: “Jane, Barold is not your only team player. You are friends, I know that. And in your opinion, certainly the best on the team. Even if you want to win, basketball is not about that, but- "

“It's about the ability to work in a team, I know, Coach,” she said resignedly. He reached out and touched her arm, making Jane squirm under the feeling of his fingers brushing over skin.

“Then work on it. That's important." His grip tightened a little, as if to symbolically emphasize his words.

She nodded, had nothing more to add and, after he had finally let go of her, headed for the changing room.

“And Jane, you can smile a little, it makes you less intimidating. And don't harm your pretty face either." He showed her a row of pearly white teeth before turning away.

"Okay," muttered Jane, more disturbed, taking one breath and pulling open the heavy doors.

The smells that hit her at once made her want to turn around and go out again. She decided that what was in store for her was no better, so she pulled herself together as she walked to the changing room benches.

"Mark looks really amazing in his pants," said a team player whom Jane did not like and then turned to the curly haired girl. "Don't you agree, Jane?" When she turned to her, Jane's eyes were practically glued to the girl's uncovered chest as she pulled on her bra.

"Hmm? I do not know. Didn't pay attention", she replied as she pulled the shirt over her head and threw another one on in no time. Not giving the other a chance on her body or the part she was ashamed of.

"And what did you watch out for?" The other girl was well aware of where Jane had been staring when she was undressed and she didn't mind teasing her with it. It was no secret that Jane Rizzoli preferred girls as her lovers, which made her a popular target for spitefulness.

"To the ball. Unlike you," Jane replied bluntly as she undid the braid and let the long, raven-black curls fall onto her shoulders.

"You never give anyone a chance to get their hands on it," said Wendy McKey, a girl Jane didn't like any more than she did. They had once been very good friends up to seventh grade.

"I'll try," she managed through clenched teeth. Jane had no interest in wasting her time here, so she hurried to put on the worn Converse before grabbing the rucksack with the carelessly stuffed gym clothes and leaving.

"Since when have you been taking that long?" Asked Frost when he caught her outside the door.

"Was stopped."

"From the lovely girls or the coach?" He gave her a knowing grin and got her fist thumped against his shoulder in response.

She snorted as she shouldered the backpack again. "Guess from both sides."

"What did he want from you then?"

"He wants me to smile a little more, that makes me even more _irresistible_." She emphasized the last word, making it sound even more lascivious with her already deep voice.

"Oh, as if that were possible," said Frost, playing the game as he huddled closer to her side.

“Forget it, Frostie. I already got a gag reflex when he just touched me. "

"You mean he's hot for you?" It sounded casual, but now Frost was listening. He had already noticed that the coach, even before Jane missed out, had an eye on the beautiful half-Italian. And he didn't like that at all.

She tried to distract him: “If there was anything hot for me in his pants? Didn't pay attention. But that would be a bit of a pity for him, wouldn't it? Hasn't he just become a father for the second time? Shouldn't he concentrate on other things? "

Frost sensed that she was trying to avoid the subject and so he didn't bother. "You did provide yourself with good information while you were away."

“I just have my sources. And I wasn't really gone. The six weeks without basketball didn't mean that I didn't run into him in the building."

"Speaking of which. Did it hurt today? I mean to have seen you flinch after jumping."

"I played as cleanly as always." By now they had reached the bike racks and Jane bent down to unlock the lock on her bike. He was right in his remark; it hurt her as hell. But she tried not to let it show.

"Jane, I'm serious, it won't do any good. Go to the doctor if it hurts or in the end something will get worse."

"Frost don't." His hand was suddenly over her right groin and her intestines contracted as he pressed into the scar tissue.

"Look how-"

"I said it was enough!" Immediately his hand was gone and he took a step back, ashamed.

"Sorry." He scratched his head, not knowing how to fix the situation. "Are you going to come along for gaming?"

"I would really like to, really. But Ma gives me hell if I don't watch me swing my ass for tutoring. Then the white smock wearers have more to mend than last time. "

"Why is that?"

“By chance she had a cleaning attack in my room and turned my whole desk upside down. And found something quite by accident. So when I got home I was amazed when my room was sparkling clean, don't get me wrong, I didn't expect that. But at the same time she waved my D minus from the last math test at me. "

"The one I wasn't much better at?" The curly haired girl nodded audibly, but avoided looking at him. “But Jane, that's crap. How can she expect you to find your way back to the subject after such a short time? And then also with math. Lord God, you missed half of it and if you only saw what I brought you. It was clear from the start that you would break in. "

“Not for her. Anyway. My parents put a lot of money in there, so I should watch before I miss this today. "

"Wait a moment. How can you finance that? "

Jane sighed and paused to pull her bike out of the stand. Frost knew about their situation and the circumstances in which they lived, so it didn't need any secrets. She laid the cards openly on the table: “Since we got the second mortgage on the house, we can't just afford Frankie's braces. See ya, Frost." It became more and more uncomfortable to talk to him about it and so the girl swung herself on the saddle and finally kicked the pedals. She curled around the building, down the street, at tremendous speed.

There was no time left to freshen up properly or to take a detour home and eat the meal that was waiting for her there. Jane hurried so fast that her thighs began to burn. She couldn't see whether the road she was crossing was green or red. She didn't notice that there was even a traffic light on the post before she heard a loud horn and screeching tires next to her.


	2. High end class meets South Boston

Well sorted as always, the honey-blonde girl put the expensive bag on the table and then unpacked the most important of her utensils before she heard a knock on the frame of the room.

"So early, Maura?"

"Mr. Nash ”, she replied with a friendly smile and then sat down on the chair. Her eyes still fixed on the man leaning in the door. "I use to be on time in order to be able to prepare a little."

“Probably over time. If my watch goes right, you have thirty minutes left. "

"Thirty-two." She couldn't help correcting him and then looked at the tabletop, bit her lip before continuing, "I ... I just want to prepare myself a little more, that's all." It was only three weeks she spent making the long drive from Wilbraham to Boston every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. And that even after a strenuous, even nerve-wracking day at boarding school. But she had made up her mind. Of her own free will. And her parents had only welcomed this change of heart. _She would finally come out of herself_ , as she always wanted Maura to do. The young honey blonde didn't know it to be among such people, to really expose herself to it.

At the boarding school near Springfield, one of the largest cities in Massachusetts, Maura didn't have a lot of extracurricular interactions with her peers. But maybe that would help her. Perhaps that was just the thing for the seventeen-year-old to open up a little.

"Maura?" Mr. Nash broke her thoughts. She hadn't noticed that he was still standing in the door, let alone talking to her.

"Sorry, what did you say?"

“I just wanted to let you know that you are getting a new member in your group. A twelfth grader named Jane Rizzoli. Her mother enrolled her more on short notice. It's supposed to be acute, but I have no concerns with you. She has chosen a math course, the difficult area with which she has to struggle is supposed to be algebra - stochastics." Maura's facial expressions flared up in anticipation.

"A nice topic," she replied and it was inevitable that the man was about to smirk.

"As I suspected, you can do it." His gaze wandered from top to bottom along her and lingered a little too long on her crossed legs according to her taste.

"Is there anything else I can do for you, _Sir_?" Maura intentionally emphasized the word with the necessary respect, so that the man could understand what position he was in towards her.

“No, I think I'll give you the time to just keep preparing. If you need anything you know where I am. So don't hesitate to ask." He winked at her like a grandfather to make up for his previous mistake and Maura nodded appreciatively.

As soon as he left and left the door ajar, Maura rummaged in her purse for her mirror. She opened it and looked at her reflection. Did she look tired? Exhausted? Should she add a little blush to look more awake, warmer? Maura put down the mirror and dropped her head in her hands.

Not for the first time she wondered whether it might not have been wiser to stay in boarding school, to read lots of books, to study.

To liven up her surroundings, she could have simply chosen one of the numerous sports on offer. She loved to ride in her childhood and the dressage park was maybe ten minutes away from Wilbraham in Springfield. She sighed.

 _No_ , she thought, _no, I am needed here. Here I can help with my knowledge_. Involuntarily, she felt like a hypocrite. Whoever did not know who she, who her parents were, could hardly believe her appearance. She wasn't even of legal age. The sweet, rich doll who got everything she wanted from Mommy and Daddy. Yes, these prejudices were circulating around the young Isles heiress. _But if only they knew ... if only I would tell them? Would that ever be different?_

Finally putting her aching thoughts aside, Maura concentrated on going through all the documents she had with her. She had brought two large files with her. Divided into different subjects from different years. Maura trusted in the competent specialist knowledge, this facility and that she had all the teaching material available to her, which she could fall back on. But up to now she had coped better with the last eight times explaining topics to _her students_ by going through her own transcripts.

She was already proud that it was still the small cluster of children / adolescents who found their way to Maura. Or maybe more of she to them?

"Can I come in?" It came from the door. Maura looked up. It was Will, a dear, perhaps a little shy, boy who took Maura a little of her own fear just by his presence.

"Of course," she said, waving him inside. He was five minutes early as always. Maura had forgotten the time. Had she spent so long humiliating herself, letting her thoughts and remorse, that she had too little time to sort herself out? "Just unpack your things and I'll come to you, okay?" Maura couldn't help herself. Will had only been in a room with her a few times, and yet he seemed to be comfortable in her presence. And it was no different for her. Confirmation that it was the right decision after all. And paid all her efforts to do so.

He nodded and then sat down at one of the three oblong, cross-shaped tables.  
Maura waited a moment and quickly wiped her sweaty hands on her skirt. Fortunately, this wasn't her uniform or one of her expensive outfits. She stood up with the three-inch heels that gave her not only size but also authority. In addition, she found them dead chic.

"Do you have homework to do?" She asked as she crouched down next to him to be about eye level. Will was just nodding noticeably. "Good. So still fractions that give you a headache?" She smiled timidly. He nod again, although this time he looked at her and played a little twitch around the corner of his mouth. "I'll write down a few things you can do to start with. If you don't know what to do next, please ask and I'll be there, okay?"

"Okay," he replied.

Did Maura really think they'd gotten to warm to each other? Quite the contrary! Will was more withdrawn than on the first day and that feeling of uncertainty, the severity of failure, crept up Maura's back

__

While she strolled around the room and explained individual topics and tried to bring them closer and at the same time wrote explanations on the small whiteboard, the time just passed without Jane showing up. Maura looked again at the silver Breitling with the black face on her wrist. Twenty minutes late. Could she still count on her?

Before the honey blonde could even finish her thoughts, someone stormed into the room and just landed at her feet.

"I'm really sorry to be late, but the traffic is fucking shit-" The dark haired girl caught when she got up again and looked Maura up and down. That meant she did it more from above, since the other was about half a head smaller than herself.

"Hello too. You have to be Jane, I suppose. ”She offered her hand, which Jane stared apathetically.

"Okay, the question must sound silly, but where is the tutor? I mean, shouldn't he instruct me? I thought he was the older man out there, but he said I should report to ... I think the name was Isles. I didn't hear anything else, because he only pointed to this room, but here- "

"That's her," said one of Maura's students. Jane's cheeks turned crimson as she looked back and forth between the young girl at the table and the blonde in front of her.

"Maura Isles," she said. Jane finally took her hand. It was no less sweaty than hers before and Maura felt the need for disinfection. Not that it was necessary, but Jane was covered in dirt and abrasions.

"Your knee. Does that hurt? ”She asked, but at first Jane didn't seem to understand what was being asked of her. In her hurry and all the anger, she had taken the least care of her knocked knee as a result of falling on the street.

"What?" She looked at the hole in her black sports pants and tried to move her bloody knee a little. She gritted her teeth. It hurt a hell of a lot. "This is nothing. Just a small scratch. Where can I sit? "

Maura shook her head at the others' stubbornness. "Come with me," she demanded. “Please continue with your tasks. I'm going to treat Jane quickly. "

"Hey, now take it easy, little blondie, I said-" But this authoritarian look that Maura fired at her let any attempt at protest die.

She trotted after Maura and found herself in the narrow corridor, which she had barely noticed before. The clacking of the heels guided her on the way when she no longer saw the other one.

Jane followed her into the bathroom, where Maura had already taken the small first aid kit from the wall. “You know, that's really not necessary, okay. It doesn't hurt, looks worse than it is." But Maura had already grabbed her arm and put her on the toilet lid with a force that she would never have expected from her.

"Shut up, finally!" Shouted Maura. She wanted to help the others, knew that she was just downplaying everything. And all that stubborn goat had on her mind was squirming and lying to her to appear stronger than she was. "That won't help either of us." Her expression softened after she caught Jane's startled expression. "Roll up your pant leg."

Jane did not do what she asked. It had to be really bad. Maura finally pulled the fabric up herself, trying to be as careful as possible. In spite of this, she heard Jane sharply draw in air. "It will burn a little now, but I have to clean the wound." She put some disinfectant on a cotton pad and dabbed the blood-crusted skin with it. Jane flinched involuntarily. Her strong facade began to crumble.

"Tell me, did you happen to do a crash course in medicine or something?" Jane asked, holding her grazed hands in her lap so she could distract herself from the pain.

"Two years of first aid at boarding school, yes." She continued to dab and saw that it was a superficial wound. No injured joint. "How did this happen?"

"I fell," Jane tried to make it sound casual.

"Slipped?"

The curly haired girl snorted. "No, my pony threw me off."

"You ride?" Maura looked up in surprise. She would not have considered Jane a horse lover.

“You don't understand sarcasm, I guess. I fell off my bike after braking and almost being run over by a car. I was in a hurry." Maura stuck a large plaster on her knee and then started to pull her trousers down again, but Jane stopped her and preferred to do it herself. When she leaned forward, she had to take a sharp breath . The honey blonde did not fail to notice so either.

"And yet you're over twenty minutes late." Maura slumped back a bit and watched Jane's fingers cover the clearly and well-defined, tense calf muscles in a jittery movement. She set about putting all utensils back in the box and removing everything else. Jane got up.

"It's hard to ride with a broken bike." She said it without any emotion and pulled her clothes back, about to disappear from the room, since she was visibly uncomfortable around the others.

Maura called her back. Her voice almost a whisper, imperceptibly piercing. "Jane, are you in any other pain?"

"I'm fine." She knew the other was not responding to the small wounds she had sustained in her fall. Had she been watching her so closely?

Maura decided to leave it at that and returned to her real task: tutoring Jane.


	3. Rather having nothing than anything with you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello :)  
> I wanna thank everyone for reading this story.  
> I hope you like this chapter.

When she finally got out of the building, it was already getting dark. The raven haired girl took a deep breath. She brooded over her tasks more than actually getting them done. Maura was the one who should have helped her, that's what she was there for. She had watched as she walked among the other children, bending over their sheets of paper, pointing for mistakes with a pencil, and her voice so muffled that only those for whom the words were intended could hear. Damn it, there had only been kids in the room! Maura was hardly older than Jane herself, she was probably not yet eighteen. How could she teach her anything when she only just had the matter herself.

Jane unlocked her bike when she remembered something the other had said. _At boarding school_. So someone with a much broader education than Jane at her state high school. She shook her head. _Had to give this geek an enormous self-esteem to be needed somewhere._ She felt remorse immediately after she thought that. Without any prejudice, Maura had helped her and had been so empathetic, even when she had resisted any help. Maura had forced herself on her anyway. And that must have been a good thing. Jane didn't know what would have happened if the honey blonde hadn't been so persistent.

She pulled the wrecked bike away from the pillar and rolled it down the street when she heard that all-too-melodic clack behind her. She didn't have to turn around to know who was walking after her. She did it anyway.

"Are you really that keen on taking care of all my ailments?" She asked sourly as she turned around and looked at the honey blonde a few meters away from her. In spite of everything, she couldn't help but be amazed. The warm light from the street lamp caressed Maura's smaller figure and gave her long hair, which lay in soft waves, an angelic color scheme.

Maura looked at her in horror. "No, I just assume we're the same way." Her voice sounded colder than intended, but Jane was slowly starting to get on her nerves. And Maura couldn't use that much. "Did you actually understand what you were working on today?"

"You saw that I got along really well, didn't you?"

Maura sighed. No, she just hadn't seen anything! Whenever she passed by Jane, or tried to look over her shoulder, she either covered the sheet extensively with her arms or she was so close to the table that her curls obscured all of Maura's view. And when asked whether she would manage or would like to have something explained, she had only silently declined.

The black Mercedes came to a stop beside them faster than Jane could see.

"This is my shuttle," said Maura when the driver's door opened and a man came around who opened the back door for her and then looked at her patiently.

 _Her shuttle, as if it were nothing else_ , thought Jane and couldn't help rolling her eyes. She turned away and was about to roll her bike down the cobblestones when Maura called out to her.

“Jane, I can take you with me! You don't have to walk the path,” said Maura. There was so much sincerity in her voice that she barely defied it. What should Jane have replied? How attentive that is? Did Maura think she could finally gain a little empathy?

“Don't force yourself, I have two functioning legs.” There was no way she wanted to be seen in this car, which was definitely worth two annual salaries of her parents. Nor she wanted to be stuck in a confined space with Maura, this stretching suspicion between them.

"Can I count on you then on Thursday?", Maura tried in a louder voice as Jane moved away from her. There was no answer. The blonde looked stunned after Jane until the driver spoke to her and she finally got into the Mercedes, after which the car door was closed. Now she had an hour and a half to think about what had happened in Jane's presence for the past sixty minutes. She couldn't place it. She had never come across anything like this, let alone someone like that.

Maura leaned her head against the window pane as the car drove over the Massachusetts Turnpike. Had she tried too hard to make a good first impression on Jane that she'd only made things worse? Had her insistence on help been too much for the other girl? Were there any signs that she should have recognized but was unable to interpret due to her lack of social skills?

No matter how Maura turned it around, she always came to the same conclusion: _It had just been a bad start_. She didn't want to bet that Jane would come again.

* * *

The lights were still on in the kitchen when Jane leaned her bike against the wall and entered the house with the key under the flower pot. She heard the clank of metal under a steady wipe with a sponge. Her mother was cleaning the pots she'd used to prepare dinner. Jane tried to be quiet when the door slammed shut. She didn't want to have to explain how she looked or what had happened earlier.

"Jane?" _Damn_. Her mother heard her anyway. She heard how she walked quickly to her in the hallway. "Honey, you don't have to sneak around in the hallway like that. Tell me how did it go?" Angela was with her in no time and turned on the light, which completely revealed Jane's cover.

The dark curls flew around and in the next moment her mother's mouth stood open in disbelief, the smile faded from the friendly face. "Before you say anything, Ma, I could have died today," Jane tried not to anticipate louder than necessary.

"Jane Clementine Rizzoli, heaven how do you look!?" The curly hair flinched involuntarily as her mother's trembling voice echoed through the house.

"Ma, please calm down. The whole neighborhood doesn't have to notice that." Her mother's hands were now clasped in front of her chest and she could have sworn to see the steam, the ascent, when her mother snorted.

Jane took a deep breath. She wasn't sure how much to tell, let alone where to start.

“We overran in sports, which is why I had to make sure not to be late for tutoring. But in the end I was a bit overzealous because I was almost hit by a car and fell." She stopped herself when she saw her mother's big eyes fixing the whitish plaster which was visible through the hole in her pants. "If you think that's bad, then you shouldn't see my bike."

Angela Rizzoli sighed. "Damn Jane, what kind of things are you doing." She came up to her daughter and hugged her, which made the bigger one visibly wince. And not from feeling unwell.

“Are you in bad pain? Did you hurt yourself? Is everything okay with the scar? "

“Ma, I was well looked after, believe me. And that ... that's nothing. I'm just sorry about the pants and the bike." She knew how they were doing financially and didn't want to incur any further expenses. The operation must have left a crater in the account balance.

Angela pulled away from her daughter and grabbed her face in both hands. “Girl, that's all to be replaced. I'm glad nothing happened to you." She kissed her forehead and then looked at her firmly; Jane could see nothing but love in her mother's eyes. “I have something left from dinner when you're hungry. Then you can also tell how the first time went."

Jane agreed to want to take a shower beforehand and so she went up the stairs while Angela disappeared back into the kitchen.

The girl with the curly hair quickly stripped off her clothes and then proceeded to peel off the plaster that Maura had carefully put on her. There wasn't much blood on it, but Jane hissed anyway as she examined it that way. She didn't dare to touch the wound.

When she stepped in front of the mirror to tie up her wild, curly mane, she couldn't help but take a look at the scar that stretched three inches above her right groin on her suntanned, flawless skin.

An appendix name. Something that would always remind her how her life had hung by a thread. If she hadn't been so overwhelmed by her pain at the last moment that Frost had driven her to the hospital despite her protests, she would probably no longer be alive now. And she owed that to him.

Jane stopped thinking about how fearful her whole family had looked at her when she woke up under anesthesia, so drugged on painkillers that they thought she'd been sedated for hours.

She turned on the hanging shower head and then stepped under the water. She deliberately ignored the pain she felt as the wet ran down her wounds.

 _Do you have any other pain? Do you need help? I can take you with me._ Maura's voice echoed involuntarily in her head. The severity of guilt hit her so hard that she sagged against the tiled wall. What had gotten into her that she had reacted so rude, even maliciously to the other?

Was it because Maura had seen more of her than she was entitled to?

She kept rubbing the lotion into her skin, but couldn't turn her thoughts away from the honey blonde. Maura has been really pretty. And she had something in her brain too. Still, something gave the whole thing a bittersweet aftertaste that made Jane not really make a clear judgment about the peers.

Completely absorbed in herself, she did not even hear the door open. It was only when the tap was turned on that she realized that she was no longer alone in the room.

"Damn it, Frankie! Make sure you get out of here! ", She hissed at her younger brother, who just looked at her completely unimpressed.

"What is? I'm just brushing my teeth.” Jane gave him an unmistakable look over her shoulder, facing the wall to hide her nakedness.

"You think this is the first time I'm seeing this?" He kept brushing his teeth but avoided looking at her. Sisters were of no interest in that case.

“Go at last! Brush your teeth elsewhere! Damn, I'm naked! " Without her having to say anything else, he went out, but gave her a middle finger to say goodbye before the door clanked on the hinges.

So Jane was again alone with her thoughts. Her hair was damp from the water. Her reflection in the mirror was dimly blurred by the steam.


End file.
